This month, the mysterious Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 has crept onto the cover of our magazine. We were able to get exclusive hands-on time and interviews with the developers at The Chinese Room, including art director Ben Matthews, who told us about the game’s specific setting: Seattle at Christmas time.
Bloodlines 2 was originally in development under Hardsuit Labs, but after a series of delays and some high-profile departures, the game was moved to The Chinese Room, a studio known for games like Dear Esther and Still Wakes the Deep. The studios are tight-lipped on how the switch-over actually went down, but an outside observer can easily spot some elements that were preserved from the Hardsuit Labs version and used in the current game. The setting is perhaps the most obvious; you can see Christmas lights on the streets of Seattle in trailers for the old version shown at E3 2019.
When The Chinese Room took over, it was essentially given the option to start fresh, and in many areas, it did. For example, the protagonist used to be a young thinblood, but The Chinese Room decided to pivot and focus on an Elder vampire, Phyre, who’s 400 years old. The holiday Seattle setting remained, however. When I ask Matthews about putting the game at this time and place, he says it’s “a nice hook.”
“It’s that nice juxtaposition of jovial, human world against dark, vampire world,” he says, citing the game’s opening. Phyre starts off in an old, deteriorating building and emerges to see the bright Seattle skyline. Phyre has been asleep for 100 years, so it makes for a jarring reawakening. “Elder Phyre, modern-day Christmas Seattle,” Matthews says. “I think that’s a really nice juxtaposition to start the game.”
Seattle’s bright, holiday streets.
Matthews goes on to say that it’s not just a narrative move; that contrast is a leading philosophy of the game’s overall visual language. “I think one thing we found really early on in the development of the game, in terms of the art direction, was trying to separate the dark from the light, both metaphorically and physically,” he says. “A lot of the streets are really kind of brightly lit, because that’s where the human world is. But where the vampire world is, where you as a player, or as a vampire, want to kind of do your nasty things, is in the darkness.”
Having played the game myself, I can attest to this. The streets are peppered with multicolored lights that reflect off bright, white snow. The alleys, on the other hand, which are unlit and undecorated, appeal to my instincts as someone who enjoys stealth games. The titular Masquerade is a rule that all vampires must conceal their abilities from the eyes of mortals, so if you want to make use of the game’s wide loadout of vampiric powers, you’ll have to get off the streets.
The trash fire is the only source of light in this alley.
“One thing we really wanted to pay attention to was quantity of detail over scope,” Matthews says of the game’s depiction of Seattle. Indeed, the player doesn’t get free roam across the entire city – get too close to the map’s outskirts and the brand on Phyre’s hand will prevent you from leaving. “We’re not making GTA; this isn’t a big, open world, sprawling game where the horizon is your limit. That was something we really paid attention to, to try to make everything as dense [as possible].”
The team is especially excited about its depiction of Seattle’s Pioneer Square. Creative director Alex Skidmore visited the location in person, saying, “I think my brain couldn’t understand […] I’m seeing this every day at work, and now I’m here as a person. […] I think we’ve got it spot on.”
Unlike Hardsuit Labs, which is based in Seattle, The Chinese Room is based in Brighton, England, so the research process wasn’t as simple as stepping outside for a walk. While Matthews never had a chance to go himself, Skidmore made the journey and gathered lots of material to reference.
An alley in Bloodlines 2 has fire escapes galore.
“I took quite a few photos,” Skidmore says. “I remember the main photos were of the alleyways. And when you play the game, you can climb up on, like, ducting and air vents and stuff. I remember originally talking to people [who were] going, ‘Is there that many air ducts and pipes in alleyways?’ And I was just taking pictures, like, ‘Yes, yes,’ finding loads and loads of examples.”
Luckily, the art team also had access to a much larger collection of reference photos.
“Google Maps is a very good resource,” Matthews says, smiling. “We had so many bookmarks on Google Maps of where anything was.”
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 is out this October on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. For more on the game, you can watch or listen to the most recent episode of the Game Informer show or read our 14-page cover story by subscribing to the magazine.